Part eight: Tsleil-Waututh chief Justin George grounded in past but looking to future

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When Justin George was a boy, he’d go down to Burrard Inlet, dig clams and pick oysters. Today, it’s a dead zone; the shellfish are too contaminated to eat.

George is only 42.

Three years ago, he was elected chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation (pronounced Slay-wah-tuth) after eight years as a councillor. In Halkomelem — a Coast Salish language that’s now spoken fluently only by a handful of people — Tsleil-Waututh means children of the inlet.

George laments what’s been lost and the damage done by more than a century of flawed government policies.

But he takes strength from his ancestors and his community’s elders.

“I have a deep love and respect for the people here. They are an inspiration and my medicine. What really motivates me is the strength of the elders and I am determined to make thing better from my generation forward.”

During our 90-minute conversation, the chief’s words and phrases echo those of his father and grandfather whose path he’s chosen to follow.

His grandfather, Chief Dan George, is a Canadian icon. His name — Geswanouth Slahoot – was changed when he was sent to residential school at age five.

An acclaimed actor nominated for many awards including an Oscar and a writer, Chief Dan George gave voice to both the anguish and aspirations of first nations’ people.

His powerful Lament for Canada delivered on July 1, 1967, at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium before 35,000 people is credited with invigorating the native rights movement.

Chief Dan George died in 1981 and what Justin George remembers is that he was a regular grandpa, who took him to the park, to hockey games and bought him ice cream. Only later did Justin realize his grandfather’s extraordinary legacy.

But it’s his father – Leonard George who was chief from 1989 to 2001 – who Justin quotes when explaining his vision for the small nation of little more than 500 people whose North Vancouver reserve is one of the smallest in Canada.

His father said that the Tsleil-Waututh must become “modern-day hunters through education. Degrees, diplomas, and technical trades are the tools that will allow us to grow into the future.”

George describes his father as “amazing.” Not only was he chief, he was an adviser to the United Nations, helping develop policies to benefit indigenous people around the world.

His son tells me this as we sit in the show suite for Destiny, the latest phase of the Raven Woods condominium development at the base of Mount Seymour begun 20 years ago under his father’s leadership.

It’s counter-intuitive that with so little land, the Tsleil-Waututh would choose to develop 800 homes (so far) and lease them to others. The plan was also controversial, which is why it’s taken so long.

But it’s working.

It’s given the Tsleil-Waututh the means to buy 800 acres of their traditional territory up Indian Arm, invest in education and training, build and operate a daycare, build a gym, launch an ecotourism company called Takaya Tours and invest in Surrey-based Endurance Wind Power Inc.

When Justin George was a boy picking oysters off the beach, hardly anyone had a job. Now, the unemployment rate is less than one per cent.

Rich in culture and love

Justin George is, in many ways, the embodiment of his grandfather’s and father’s often-stated beliefs that regardless of whether they are red, yellow, black or white, all people laugh and cry about the same things; that every person has a special gift to offer others.

George’s mother, Susan, is English. She was visiting Canada in the 1950s when she saw Leonard George performing with his family’s Children of Takaya dance troupe at Cates Park. The federal government had banned first nations’ people from meeting together to dance and sing. But as George explains there was a loophole. First nations’ people could “entertain” and his grandfather used the family’s dance troupe as a means of preserving the Tsleil-Waututh’s songs and dances.

Justin George says his mother has told him how his father “had cool, green shades like John Lennon that matched his green, suede shoes.”

“Although they were from opposite worlds, it was love at first sight. They never saw the colour, they just felt the love and connection.”

From his mother, George inherited blue eyes and fair skin.

“I didn’t encounter much racism because of the way I look. But absolutely there was racism. Young people can be extremely hurtful. They speak without reason. It [racism] was there at school and on the [sports] fields. I saw and heard things.

“Our community was very poor, but it was rich in culture and rich in love. But it was financially poor and that had an impact on the day-to-day life.”

Growing up, George says, “Sports and being in the heart of my culture [singing and dancing] were the places I felt most safe.”

Justin excelled at hockey, playing forward for the Chilliwack Eagles and New Westminster Royals of the B.C. Junior Hockey League and went to Michigan’s Ferris State University and Northern Michigan University on sports scholarships.

He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree with a major in communications and minors in business and native American studies.

After graduation, George and his Dutch-American wife, Heidi, moved to Britain where he played first for the Sheffield Steelers of the British Hockey League and then for the Solihull team.

But after two years, George brought his bride home to the Tsleil-Waututh reserve where they are raising their two children – a daughter, nine-year-old Sky, and Justin, who is six.

“At this time in my life, it’s really important that I be here. It’s a very special place for me,” says George.

He doesn’t rule out moving once his children are grown, recognizing how much Heidi has sacrificed for him by moving from her home in Michigan to live in this small, first nations community – albeit one near the heart of a city with spectacular views of the water and mountains.

George concedes that he was raised to be a leader of his people, but admits he was reluctant to run for council 11 years ago when he was only 31.

It was a challenging time. The Ravens Wood development was in its early stages and there were still many social problems on the reserve – alcoholism, drug abuse, unemployment.

The Olympics had been proposed and the four first nations on whose territories the 2010 Winter Games would take place were asked to participate. People were anxious about that: Would they be full partners or window-dressing? The Tsleil-Waututh along with the Musqueam, Squamish and Lil’wat first nations signed on and held on despite protests and denunciation from many other first nations across the country.

The first nations’ participation in the Games wasn’t perfect, says George who was elected chief just before the 2010 Games began. But it was the best it had ever been for indigenous peoples and in Canada, it set the tone for better relationships.

The prime preoccupations of any modern-day chief are politics and economic development.

The politics are multilayered — local, municipal, provincial and federal. It’s often frustrating especially for first nations like the Tsleil-Waututh that are involved in the seemingly endless treaty process.

Opposes pipelines

While some chiefs love the political part of the job, George is most passionate about the business side.

“It’s a much cleaner process because you’re working with individuals who you choose to work with. Politics can be very challenging especially working with the federal and provincial governments. It’s important to develop and strengthen relationships. So, for the benefit of the people, you do what you have to do.”

Without economic growth, George said chiefs end up “governing poverty.” But without gaining the tools for growth through the treaty process – access to land and resources – first nations can never return to being economically viable.

He describes a viable economy as being “the vein to everything else.”

That said, George is an outspoken opponent of oil pipelines proposed by both Kinder Morgan and Enbridge.

“It is about our children’s children, about all children. We want to leave them the opportunity for healthy lives.

“For us, the risks associated with the pipelines are just too high. For us, we understand the importance of business, but we also understand the meaning of sustainable business.”

Of particular concern is Kinder Morgan’s $4.1-billion proposal to double its capacity, which the city of Vancouver says would triple the number of oil tankers going through the First and Second Narrows.

The result is inevitable, says George. Oil port cities end up being “waterway dead zones.”

And he notes that in 2007 an excavator ruptured a Kinder Morgan pipeline in Burnaby, spilling 1,400 litres on the land and into Burrard Inlet.

Recently, George met with members of the Lubicon First Nation whose reserve is adjacent to Alberta’s oilsands.

“Their cancer rates are atrocious. They have to import water even to wash their dishes.”

George cites the recent, highly critical U.S. National Transportation Safety Board report of the 2010 Enbridge pipeline break that spilled 3.2 million litres of diluted bitumen crude near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.

Like the Burrard Inlet, George feels a connection to the Kalamazoo River.

There were 196,075 aboriginal people living in British Columbia, according to the 2006 census. Of those, 40,310 lived in Metro Vancouver with 6,075 dwelling on reserve land.

In 2006, 11,140 first nations people lived in the City of Vancouver, which has the highest aboriginal population in Metro. Surrey had 7,630, while a total of 1,685 lived in the City and District of North Vancouver.

There are 1,981 B.C. Indian bands whose reserve lands total 343,741 hectares or 0.36 per cent of the province’s entire land area.

According to Statistics Canada, 26 per cent of B.C.’s first nations people lived on reserves in 2006. Of those living on reserve land, Statistics Canada says one in three people has no aboriginal ancestry.

There are an estimated 500 members of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation; 275 live on the North Vancouver reserve. It’s estimated that there were close to 10,000 Tsleil-Waututh when Europeans first arrived, bringing smallpox with them which decimated the Tsleil-Waututh.

The Tsleil-Waututh language is Downriver Halkomelem, a Coast Salish language now spoken by only a handful of people. Starting this fall, there will be classes on the reserve to try to save the language from extinction.

Tsleil-Waututh means children of the inlet.

According to Tsleil-Waututh legend, the Creator transformed a wolf into the first Tsleil-Waututh and made them responsible for the land.

The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation co-manages Say Nuth Khaw Yum/Indian River Provincial Park with the B.C. government and is credited with bringing back elk to the area. It also co-manages with the District of North Vancouver Whey-ah-Wichen or Cates Park, which was its traditional summer village site.

Up until 2000, the Tsleil-Waututh were known as the Burrard Indian Band, which is the name given them by the federal government when it set out their 276-acre reserve in 1869.

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Part eight: Tsleil-Waututh chief Justin George grounded in past but looking to future

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